Archive

Report Launch: Protestant Migration from the West Bank of Derry / Londonderry 1969-1980

Dr Ulf Hansson and Dr Helen McLaughlin, 1 March 2018 | 01 March 2018

Why did members of the Protestant/ Unionist/Loyalist (PUL) community leave the west bank of Derry in their thousands since the late 1960s? The PFC posed this thorny question in a multilingual Political Guide to Derry published by the Centre in 1992. Some have argued that Protestants living on the we...

Theresa May misled Parliament @ PMQs

Guardian ad with PFC, RFJ & JFF | 16 May 2018

Today a half page advertisement appeared in the Guardian Newspaper, calling out British Prime Minister Theresa May for misleading Parliament at Prime Minister's Questions regarding the investigations into conflict-related deaths in the north.

The Museum of British Colonialism

| 25 September 2018

AN EXPLORATION OF BRITISH COLONIALISM The Museum of British Colonialism has been realised to creatively communicate a more truthful account of British colonialism. We have a documentary and a pilot exhibition in the works and will use this site to gather, share, present and comment on material and r...

Britain should stop trying to pretend that its empire was benevolent

May 13, 2016 | 10 October 2018

Interesting 2016 article from Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Sussex on Britain's attitude to empire and the racist underpinnings of the view that the empire was benevolent. Published in The Conversation.

Briefing paper for families on British army killings/investigations/prosecutions + LIB/PSNI fact sheet

PFC | 24 February 2017

UPDATE FOR FAMILIES: British Army killings/ prosecutions etc. There has been extensive media coverage recently covering the alleged “witch-hunt” against former members of the British Army for actions carried out during the conflict. There has also been speculation that the British government would i...

Facts about Atrocity: Reporting Colonial Violence in Postwar Britain

2 February 2018 | 22 August 2017

ABSTRACT What did people in Britain know about the violence of counterinsurgency campaigns at the end of empire in the 1940s and 1950s? In many ways, British knowledge about colonial violence was widespread. But it was also fragmented and ambiguous: whispered among family and friends; dramatized in...

PFC/JFF respond to Chief Constable

| 15 December 2017

Following publication of an Open Letter from the Glenanne families the Chief Constable has written to all elected representatives rejecting the families' call for him to abide by the terms of the Order of Mandamus issued on November 7 by Mr. Justice Seamus Treacy and not pursue another appeal proces...

Families challenge MoD and Prime Minister in London

PFC | 15 November 2016

British Prime Minister Theresa May warned the recent Tory party conference about what she called: "… activist, left-wing human rights lawyers [who] harangue and harass the bravest of the brave – the men and women of Britain’s Armed Forces". She also vowed to defend soldiers against "vexatious allega...

What price a life? May's rhetoric and the MOD's reality

Tom Griffin, Spinwatch | 16 November 2016

In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, recent months have seen an increasingly chauvinistic tone in British politics. One aspect of this has been a concerted campaign against investigations of abuse by the Armed Forces. Conservative MPs have pressed Theresa May to curtail the activities of the I...

Northern Ireland families challenge May’s defence of army

British military assessment of Internment in 1971

The memo from the CLF (Commander Land Forces) to the CGS (Chief of the General Staff) shows that the military command were preparing for direct rule nine months before Stormont was abolished. It includes a fictional account of the "Battle for Belfast".

Memo to Secretary of State on security options-Feb 1978 (added May 2018)

1978 memo to SoS (author unknown) outlining security options and highlighting the 'danger signs' that the (British) army are deploying patrols for "suppression" and Intelligence" with no intention of arresting and charging suspects. The memo goes on to suggest that any 'drift' back to army methods and goals is the "road that leads to executive action against terrorists , rather...